And, for the first time, you can collect and save articles, photos, audio and video by organizing them into beautiful magazines. These can be private, or if you want to connect with like-minded enthusiasts, you can make them public and share them on Flipboard and beyond. Now everyone can be a reader and an editor.

Sounds great to me!

Official Video for Social Reader Flipboard 2.0

How to Create Your Own Magazine Using Flipboard 2.0

Tap the + button next to articles,

Pick a name for your magazine,

Add a description for your new magazine, and

You’re done! Enjoy flipping through your new magazine.

What Makes Flipboard Customized Magazines Awesome

You can create as many magazines as you want (ie. Social Media News, Wedding Favorites, Celebrity News & Gossip).

And you can curate articles and posts from virtually any source on Flipboard, including what™s being shared on your favorite social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud, LinkedIn and Tumblr. This combines all of your social media in one flippable magazine.

Revine like you ReTweet

After having spent a great deal of time attempting to make its Vine for iOS app as competitive as Instagram, Twitter has made some improvements to its Vine for Android app.

Revine like you ReTweet

Android users now have the ability to Revine content in the Twitter stream.
To Revine a Vine (video) that comes across your Twitter stream is similar to ReTweeting content that comes through your Twitter stream. The original Vine is still intact.

Twitter has also given Android Vine users channel categories for video discovery, a few new camera tools for shooting videos, and a quick capture widget for the Android home screen.

The Vine capture widget is a shortcut icon installed on the Android home screen which lets users shoot video instantly.

Auto Follow Doesn't Make Users Feel Special

Yesterday Twitter published changes that have been made to their Developer Rules Of The Road, which outlines best policies, practices and philosophy for third party development and innovation on the Twitter platform.

Auto Follow & Bulk Follow are Banned

Among the changes made to Twitter’s TOS was the ability to auto or bulk follow through third-party applications. Twitter developer Sylvain Carle has outlined the changes in his blog post.

We have also clarified some restrictions: hosting datasets of raw Tweets for download is prohibited, and automated following or bulk following is also prohibited.

At least he lead with the “perky” positives before driving home the “limiting” negatives.

What is Auto Follow on Twitter?

Auto Follow is a following technique commonly used in marketing plans – where brands use a third-party app or software to automatically follow a user that mentions their brand, or hashtags their brand name, or when the user starts following them.

But, it looks like #AutoFollow of the Famous #FollowBack Crew will die unless people manually follows the users that follow them.

What is Bulk Follow on Twitter?

Bulk Follow is different than Auto Follow in that marketers follow more than one user at a time. Some marketers may wait until a particular day of the week, like Follow Friday (#followfriday) to start following the users that mentions their brand, or hashtags their brand name, or have followed them since the previous Friday.

Popular Auto Follow Services Will Be Affected

There are quite a few popular auto follow services that will be affected by the change.

Just to mention a few:

InstaFollow

Twollo

Twollow

TwitterMass

It will be interesting to see both if and how their services will change.

How Does Prohibiting Auto Follow Affect Business Marketing?

Those brands who once guaranteed a follow back of those who follow their Twitter account will have to take extra steps in following those who follow their brands. Whereas brands could employ third-party apps to Auto Follow, they’ll now need to employ a human to physically follow in order to achieve the same result.

Feedly, one of the most popular feed readers, will allow you to import your Google Reader feeds.

“Feedly is a lovely, easy-to-use service for two categories of people: those who once used Google Reader, and those who’ve never heard of it. Because if you’re still starting your morning with a zigzag through a standard set of Web sites, you’re wasting time and energy. Feedly is what you needly.”
– David Pogue, The New York Times

Reading blogs can be a pain in the ass. We created bloglovin´ so you wouldn™t have to visit un-updated blogs, open ten windows in your browser, or forget your favorite blogs’ web-addresses. With bloglovin´, we wanted to make your blog-reading fun and easy.

Pulse will allow you to import your feeds from Google Reader, and will use its own algorithm to pull the most interesting posts from your feed to the top of your reading list; this is similar to Facebook’s “Top News” vs. “Most Recent”.

Created by Brew Dog and Inspired by Twitter, MashTag is the people's beer.

Brew Dog, a U.K. beer company, recently released #MashTag, a Twitter-inspired beverage shaped by votes from social media users.

All major decisions were left up to Brew Dog’s Social Media fans. Casting almost 5,000 votes, Brew Dog fans voted via Twitter, Facebook and the brewery’s blog on everything from the beer’s name to the type of hops that would be used. The end result is a 7.5% American Brown Ale made with New Zealand hops and aged on hazelnuts and oak chips.

The name #MashTag, which earned 58% of the votes, comes from “hashtag” and “mashing,” the first step in the beer brewing process, Digital Trends reported.

Because most decisions regarding the brew were handled by social media users, #MashTag may well be the first completely crowdsourced beer.

Inspired by the passion, knowledge and enthusiasm of craft beer drinkers, we set out to create a truly democratic craft beer. We entrusted all the important decisions to our fans, customers and anyone who wanted to learn more about the craft brewing process and cast their vote. We gave up complete control of every single decision which shaped the final beer that the #MashTag project produced.

Instagram Video with 13 On-the-Fly Filters & Editing

Today, Facebook announced Instagram Video. Instagram Video, available for both iOS and Android, features up to 15 seconds of video, with 13 on-the-fly filters, video editing, and Cinema – Instagram’s new stabilization technique.

Instagram Video Highlights

Available for iOS and Android now.

Up to 15 Seconds of Video (3 Second Minimum)

13 Custom Filters

Cinema – Instagram’s New Stabilization Technique

Video for Instagram: The Juicy Details

As you record your video™s segments, each segment is broken up in the timeline. If one gets messed up, you can tap just that segment to delete it.

Video filters can be applied on the fly, as the video plays.

After you shoot a video, you can choose a œCover Frame a frame from the video that acts as the thumbnail of the clip when you share it.

We'll find out tomorrow, June 20th at 10am PST.

Rumors have been circulating that there will soon be a Vine vs Instagram Video smackdown and just guess who has a secret?

Unveil Something Users Actually Want, Facebook.

Sending an invitation to the press via snail mail, Facebook will be holding their fourth press event in the past 6 months tomorrow, June 20th.

œA small team has been working on a big idea, said Facebook in the invitation. œJoin us for coffee and learn about a new product. The invitation has a fake coffee mug œstain on the corner of the invitation.

Hot on the tails of a new Facebook News Feed, and Facebook Home, Instagram Video would be the next logical step after having thrown a fit and shooting down the mere thought of any Vines appearing on Facebook.

Having released a Facebook for iOS update yesterday and an Instagram update a few days ago, the Facebook elves have certainly been busy.

Before there was Vine, there was Cinemagr.am

Before there was Vine, there was Cinemagr.am. And with Instagram video coming tomorrow, June 20th, it’s important to note its predecessors. The Cinemagr.am App, co-created by Temo Chalasani, is the fastest way to share videos with your friends and family. Create and instantly share beautiful 4 second looping videos to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr!

Cinemagr.am App Creates 4 Second Looping Videos

Cinemagrams are created by taking a video, isolating a particular section within the shot, and looping movement while keeping the rest as a still photograph. On a touchscreen, you can do this editing with your finger within the Cinemagram app. The rest of the interface is basically just like Instagram with overlay filters, social features, a popular page, etc.

Cinemagr.am App Gives GIFs A Good Name.

Cinemagram uses the age-old Internet format of animated GIFs, so these creations play automatically on many Web pages and within the app. With Cinemagram you can produce animated rather than still-frame photos, allowing you to capture moments with more vividness. It also provides different editing options and fun filters that enable you to be more creative with your photography.

App Update Features Emoticons and Photo Privacy Changes

Use Emoticons in Status Updates on Facebook for iOS

Emoticons were added to Facebook’s Desktop site earlier this year. And now Facebook for iOS replicates the desktop release, allowing users to click the smiley face in the status update box to bring up an emoticon menu that sorts expressive graphics into categories including feeling, watching, reading, and eating. I’ve never really wanted to use emoticons in status updates, but maybe I’ll give it a try.

Update Photo Privacy via iPhone

We’ve all had that moment where we’ve posted a photo to the Facebook “public”, instead of a specific “friend group”. The Facebook 6.2 App update now allows you to change the privacy on the photo you just uploaded for the masses.
No more having to scramble for your laptop or frantically try to access Facebook Desktop from your iPhone.

Facebook for iOS 6.2 Release Notes

Add icons to status updates to show what you’re feeling, reading, watching and more (English only)

Easily change who can see something you’ve shared

Start a new conversation with photos you receive in messages

Bug fixes

Note:Status icons are only available in the English version of Facebook’s iOS application.

SOCIAL MEDIA CONSULTANT COURTNEY ELIZABETH

Courtney Elizabeth is a Social Media Marketing & Branding Consultant in Los Angeles, CA who enjoys analyzing the social media impact of iOS apps ( I/O ) built by awesome organizations worldwide, and offering alternative strategies for marketing, branding, and customer first social engagement.